


Demon

by luxshine



Category: Army of Darkness (Comic), Hellblazer, NSYNC, Popslash
Genre: Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-13
Updated: 2011-04-13
Packaged: 2017-10-18 01:19:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/183385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luxshine/pseuds/luxshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris and JC are demon hunters with a lot of problems in their hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bossymarmalade (maggie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maggie/gifts).



> This was written for MtyG 2009

“But I’m not a priest!”

Even as he complained loudly, Christopher Kirkpatrick, known to his friends as Chris, and to his enemies as ‘that damn bastard', was going up the stairs of the old apartment building, two steps at a time. He had told Joshua Chasez, his partner and best friend, that neither of them was qualified to do that day’s job. He had even offered to get a **real** expert to deal with the trouble that was arising. But then JC had to ruin Chris’s carefully laid argument with just two words and despite his complaints, there he was, running like a madman to try and do the impossible.

In his backpack he carried everything he thought he needed. Holy water, a crucifix blessed by the Pope himself (And it had been John Paul II, not Benedict XVI which suited Chris just fine because he still didn’t trust Benedict that much), his special gun loaded with silver bullets, the Bible, the Qur’an, a handful of wooden stakes, and his cell phone to call his teachers if he and JC ended up biting off more than they could chew. It was just five months since they had been allowed to work alone and he was pretty sure that the current situation was far beyond their abilities.

“Do we want the church getting involved?” JC asked as he reached the last floor of the building where his friend Lance had his apartment.

Chris sighed as he looked at the door of Lance’s apartment. Of course he didn’t. He hadn’t trusted the Church ever since he turned 16, and JC knew that. That was the real reason why they were there, not to save the poor soul that had gotten involved in things that men in general weren’t supposed to know, but to keep anyone else from finding out what was going on. First rule of the Fight Club and all that crap.

* * *

Before he turned 16, Chris had been the embodiment of what a perfect angel should be. That was not just his mother’s way of saying that he had never caused her trouble. Everyone who knew him agreed. He helped people in need, never lied, never swore, assisted at church every Sunday, and was even a choir boy.

Later, he would say he had been not only innocent but also very naïve.

He still remembered the day when Father O’Callan asked him to stay after practice. Since Chris’s 16th birthday was just a week away, he had foolishly believed that the Father wanted to tell him they were having a party in the church for him or maybe even that the Father had gotten him a gift.

What he had gotten instead was a handkerchief with chloroform as soon as he had stepped in the Father’s office. He had lost consciousness quickly and after that, his recollection was fuzzy at best.

“Don’t let them know you’re awake,” said the voice that had woken him up much, much later, had been JC’s. Only at the time, Chris only knew him as ‘the voice’. “They’ll drug you again.”

“They who?” Chris had whispered back, not knowing where he was, who he was speaking to, or what was going on. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Joshua,” JC had answered. “Don’t speak too loud… you really don’t want them finding out we’re awake.”

It made little sense to Chris, but he was scared so he listened to JC.

That had ended up saving his life.

* * *  
“Can you explain us again what happened?” Chris asked Lance, who looked anxious. Given what JC had told him, Lance had good reasons to look like that.

“I already told JC,” Lance repeated. It was the fifth time that he said that, and it was starting to make Chris’s patience grow thin. “I have no idea. He just started puking and then yelling gibberish at me.”

“Gibberish or a language you didn’t understand?” Chris started rummaging through his bag. Behind him, JC was opening the door to the bedroom.

“Uhm, how am I supposed to know the difference?” the blond stammered.

“Gibberish doesn’t sound languagey,” JC said from the door. “Who tied him to the bed?”

“AJ… My sister’s boyfriend and I,” Lance confessed. “He tried to bite Stacey.”

“Bite her?” Chris frowned. Violence in possession cases was normal, but trying to bite someone wasn’t that common. In fact, it was a symptom of a completely different problem. One which he was more than capable of fixing, but that usually ended up with very angry clients.

“His exact words were ‘I’m going to swallow your soul’,” Lance said, looking at the floor as if he was ashamed. “Then he started with the gibberish before AJ closed the door and called you guys.”

“Where’s AJ?” JC asked, coming out of the bedroom. He looked calmer than before, and Chris decided to take that as a good sign. Maybe it meant that whatever had possessed Lance’s friend wasn’t as bad as Chris had feared.

“He said he wasn’t feeling well and went home.”  
Chris and JC shared a worried look. Lance’s words were starting to paint a very familiar landscape and Chris wasn’t sure that he liked what he thought would be the outcome.

* * *

“I’ll swallow your souls!” The shrill scream of what had been a young girl almost made JC and Chris run away from their hiding place.

They had managed to escape from the dark room where the priests had locked them up by following JC’s idea and pretending to be unconscious all the time when the door opened. The priests had finally come to ignore them and so, one day JC took advantage of that to stick a small pebble inside the lock of the door, making it easy to open once they figured the coast was clear.  
JC and Chris, followed by the other five choir boys that had been kidnapped from different churches all over the city tried to keep themselves hidden as they ran through the corridors of the old house where they had been kept; they were hoping to find the way out, but instead found themselves on the second floor, looking down to a huge dining hall where all the priests were gathered.

Chris recognized Father O'Callan in the congregation and bit his lip so he wouldn’t scream. He had figured out that the priest had had something to do with his current problem, but he had hoped to be wrong. In the center of the room, there was a young girl that looked no older than 14 tied to a stone slab. She was crying inconsolably as the apparent leader of the group, a well groomed man that looked like a Wall Street worker and not like a crazed cult follower, opened a weird looking book in front of her. She cried and resisted, but the priests finally forced her to read the words out loud.

The words sounded like nothing Chris had ever heard, but the effect was immediate. The girl's head slumped down for a second but when she looked up, she looked nothing like she had before. Her skin had turned green and had filled with scars and boils. Her eyes were yellow and bloodshot and her fingers had turned into bonelike claws that broke her restraints with ease.

"I'm going to swallow your souls!!" the former girl screamed, attacking the nearest priest, breaking his skin with her bare hands. Blood poured out from his veins as she turned around, looking for a new victim.

The business man didn't seem fazed by all this. On the contrary, he seemed as if he had been expecting that particular result.

"We've got to get out of here!" Chris whispered to JC, as he pulled his new friend away from the grim spectacle on the lower floor. Below them, the screams seemed to increase in volume and a new male voice joined the girl's, screaming the same threat about swallowing souls and forcing everyone to become their slaves.

"Wait!" JC stopped him and turned around. To Chris's horror, the girl was not the only one looking like a monster. Some other priests had started mutating too, looking like gross caricatures of men instead of like people. They attacked everyone around them, and it was starting to look as if the only two possible outcomes for the people gathered was to either be killed or transform into a monstrosity.

But the man in the business suit was still smiling.

  
* * *

"We're so **not** ready to deal with that," Chris told JC in whispers as Lance fidgeted near the door. "Because there's no way that this was an accidental possession, and you know it!"

"It still could be," JC shrugged. "The victim could have been walking near an infection point and got unlucky."

"Someone would've noticed if there was an infection point nearby," Chris shook his head. "Remember Seattle? And that hospital in New Hampshire? Or the nice little town in Silent Hill? These demons don't know the meaning of the word subtlety. If that kid **is** infected, he's victim number one or two... and you know that means that someone close to him was stupid enough to either be part of the crazy cult OR found a copy of the cursed book and decided it would be a great idea to read it out loud and it will become an infection point **fast**."

JC lowered his head, fidgeting with his collar. It was a simple silver chain with a lion medallion, one of the very few mementos the man had of his family **before** the day he had met Chris. There had been a cross dangling next to it once, but Chris knew very well why it wasn't there anymore. Both had been burned by the church in a terrible way and neither was ready to forgive it yet.

"But that would mean that Lance or his family are involved," JC finally said sadly. Chris couldn't blame him. JC had liked Lance, and they had become good friends when JC had started working at the local Smart just to keep him and Chris fed and the rent paid since Chris's talents were amazing for their line of work as supernatural consultants but lousy for 8 to 9 jobs. Lance was JC's first friend at the store, and now they had to face the possibility that maybe the blond was just another of those crazy idiots who thought a full fledged demon invasion was what was needed to rekindle mankind's faith in the Church.

And that was not even the real problem JC and Chris were facing right then.

"You know what the only cure is if the kid has been possessed by one of them," Chris muttered, trying not to think of the gun loaded with silver bullets that he was carrying. "If Lance's innocent... we still have to explain that to him. Are you up for the task?"

JC shook his head, trying not to look at the closed door behind which the possessed victim was waiting. "It's too late to call for reinforcements, right?"

* * *

One of the kids that had been locked up with them started screaming and doubling over in pain, just as the group had finally found the main hall of the mansion where they had been kept. Chris turned around just in time to see him undergo the same transformation as the girl downstairs, and he started wondering if he or JC would be next.  
He had no idea why some people were transforming and others weren't, but he wished hard that they were immune. If he had no way to get out of there alive, he'd rather be torn to pieces than turned into a slobbering, shrieking demon.

Suddenly, the main door of the house burst open and four people rushed in.

The apparent leader was a blond man with short hair, dressed in a brown trench coat, black slacks, white shirt and black tie. He had a cigarette between his lips, and his mouth was set in a sarcastic half smile. He sort of looked like Sting's more cynical brother to Chris's young eyes, but the idea of being saved by **Sting** was too ridiculous to be even considered. Next to him there was a very young Japanese person. Chris couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man, but he was very thin and dressed in a very elegant fashion: all black pants and turtleneck shirt, covered with a red trench coat that was the same color and tone of the hat the young person was wearing. In his hands, he was carrying odd rectangle papers covered in Japanese writing. Behind him, there was a very old woman, dressed in a purple dress that might have been fashionable sixty years ago, covered with a lilac cape, shorter than the men's trench coat. Her hair was coiffed very high, and her face was stern, like the Mother Superior back at St. Mary, but still somewhat warm. Something in her made Chris trust her immediately. In her arms, a black cat was staring the young boys intently, and Chris shivered. He had never seen a live cat sit so still, but he knew it was alive because it blinked a couple of times.

The last man of the group was the only one carrying a weapon. Wearing denim pants and a shredded blue shirt, the black haired man with the huge chin had a sawed off shotgun in his left hand. His **only** hand, because his right arm ended abruptly a couple of inches above where his wrist should have been, and in place of a hand he had a huge chainsaw.

A bloody chainsaw.

"Seems we're facing something right up your alley, Ash," the blond man said with a thick British accent, as he took out the cigarette from his mouth. "And we're a bit late for the festivities."

Ash, the black haired man, didn't answer. He just pointed his shotgun at the transforming kid just behind Chris and shot, making his head explode in a rain of brain, blood, and skull bits. Chris didn't scream, even if he was terrified. The night's events had left him too shocked to scream.  
"Told you some idiot would read the Necronomicon Ex Mortis again," Ash said. He was American, there was no mistake in his voice. And even if he looked like a maniac as he lifted his chainsaw and it started on its own, Chris still felt relief. "Now let's kick some Candarian Demon's ass!"

The cavalry had arrived.

* * *

Chris took a deep breath and opened the door to the room. If they were facing a Candarian demon, whatever they were holding the kid with wouldn't hold for long.

He had seen possessed people even break chains when the demon entered their bodies. Even if they were not very elegant, subtle or even powerful on the grand demonic scale, Candarian demons were full of trickery. They enjoyed making their victim's families grieve and suffer, right before possessing them too. Ash had told Chris countless times that Candarian demons were like the hell flu. Not only did they make you feel miserable, the possession was contagious as hell. It took less than two hours to fill a town with Candarian demons once the Necronomicon exmortis was opened, and the damn book was practically impossible to destroy.

Chris **really** wished Ash was with them right then. His old teacher never even blinked when he had to shoot a possessed victim, reminding Chris that just one second of hesitation could be deadly. But Ash had been devoured up **again** by a demonic portal and even if Chris was sure he would come back sooner or later, that meant that he and JC were alone against the demons this time.

"Join us! Join us!" the possessed kid on the bed started shrieking as soon as he saw Chris. That was the Candarian demon usual modus operandi. The gibberish was actually the recital of the Necronomicon passage that allowed them to come in to the flesh of the living and destroy the human mind, which meant that they probably didn't have to explain to Lance why they were going to kill his friend. JC's friend was probably possessed too so they would have to kill him. His sister and AJ too, by the look of things, and then, if they could just find the stupid book and banish it, run like hell out of town before they were booked **again** as serial killers. "Or I'll kill you dead and swallow your soul raw!"

Fighting the occult was not an easy line of work. Chris **hated** the fact that they lived on the run just because they tried to save lives.  
He looked at the figure on the bed and paled. JC **had** told him that the possessed kid was a friend of them, but Chris had **never** expected it to be him.

"Oh, fuck," Chris whispered, making the demon notice him for the first time.

"Oh, Chris! I'm so glad to see you join us..." the figure on the bed said in mock joy. Chris swallowed, as he tried to concentrate on the green and boil filled skin, and not on the blue eyes that still looked human despite the possession. Not on the fact that he could still make Justin's features under the demonic distortion. "I was really hoping I would be the one to tear your limbs from your body!"

"Chris... What's wrong?" JC asked, worried.

"That's Justin," Chris whispered back, standing between the bed and JC. He knew they both were coming in to **kill** the possessed boy, but he didn't want JC to shoot Justin just like that. Even if he knew it was probably the best course of action.

"Justin..." JC frowned, before recognition dawned on his eyes. "Justin as in **your** Justin? The one you've been dating for the past two months?!"

"Oh, we've done more than just date," the shrieking demon laughed. "What about it, Chris, do you want to tell your exlover what have we've doing in his car? When he's working a lousy low wage job to keep **you** feed? Or about how long you can hold it before coming all over my face? We can also invite him! I know that *you* want to relive old times, and have some new excitement! Join us, and that will be soo easy..."

"Shut the fuck up!" Chris took a chance and slapped the demon hard. It was his lover's body and voice, but he had to remember that the thing on the bed was not Justin. It was just using Justin like a cheap suit, and finding in his brain whatever information was good to make Chris suffer.

Ash had warned them of that particular habit of these demons. It was almost as bad as their terrible habit of possessing anything that had been once alive.

"I can do many new things now," the demon kept on, opening his mouth to show an impossibly long tongue that curled in the air and made an obvious and very lewd gesture that imitated a blow job. "You will never believe how bendy I am now! I'll make you scream in pleasure and in horrific soul rending pain if you just join us... and then you'll like it."

A loud shot rang in the room and the demon stopped to look at the huge hole that had been opened in the wall behind him, just above his shoulder.

"I believe Chris asked you to shut up," JC said between clenched teeth. He had brought out the .45 Magnum he kept hidden under his own trench coat. Where Chris had taken to follow Ash's more direct methods, JC followed Constantine's more overt way of operating. Chris was sure his friend had a crush on the older British man.

By Agatha's suggestion, they both had embossed their guns with silver crosses on the grips and barrels. Made them unique and, thanks to a friend of Subaru, they were also covered with a protection spell that extended to the bullets. For this particular job, it was overkill. Candarian demons were vulnerable to normal bullets, as long as the shot pierced the human brain, but the protection spell also created a temporary seal on the demons. It made them silent and somewhat tame for a few minutes.

"What is going on?" Lance came in running, looking scared. Chris didn't hesitate and pointed his own gun at the man. Shooting JC's friend would be a lot easier than shooting Justin.

"Stay right there and don't make a sound," Chris said. "We're dealing with this."

"Dealing with this?! You shot my wall!"

"Your friend is possessed by a Candarian demon," JC explained, not taking his eyes away from the Justin thing. "That type of possession is very infectious and dangerous, so we have to make sure that you're not possessed too. So you can see our problem."

"I'm not possessed!" Lance yelled, indignant. Still, neither JC nor Chris moved from their spot.  
"Funny," Chris muttered. "That's exactly what a Candarian demon would say so we wouldn't shoot it."

* * *

"Who are you?" Chris asked the woman, while Ash and the other two men ran to the dining room where the priests and the demons were still killing each other.

"No one important, dear," the woman said, putting her cat on the ground. "Go on, Ebony, help Constantine and the others while I take care of our young friends."

The cat seemed to understand her as he ran towards the open door. Before he went though, he sagged towards one of the other rescued young men and purred as he stroked the leg of one of them as he turned white.

"Dear me," the old lady said. As she spoke, her eyes turned red. "I'm afraid we've got an infiltrator..."

The man who had been marked by the cat stepped back, afraid.

"I don't know what you're talking about, ma'am," the man said, stammering. "I just want to go home... please, let me go home...""

"I'm going to send you home," the woman said as her hands suddenly were engulfed by fire. "In a much more merciful way than that of my associates."

"You whore!" the kid yelled as his face contorted into a demonic mask. "I'm going to skin you alive and then eat your entrails!"

"Demons have such bad manners," the woman said, lifting her hand. As she did so, the demon turned into a huge fireball and disappeared as he screamed in pain. "Now, Ebony made sure all of you are free of the demon’s taint... so go on, we have to get out of here before they get their way in your souls.

"What's going on?" Chris asked as he looked back at the door of the dining hall where they could hear screams, shots and chanting in something that sounded like Japanese.

"My dear boy, it's nothing of your concern," she said, touching his cheek. Her hand felt warm, but that was no surprise after seeing her shoot fireballs. "What we should be concentrating on right now is getting you out to safety."

"But... your friends are fighting for us!" JC insisted. The sounds of the hall were getting louder, and the wall suddenly exploded. In the rubble, Chris and JC could see Ash cutting open a possessed priest with his chainsaw hand, while behind him the blond had pulled out another sawed off shotgun and was shooting everything in sight.  
The Japanese person was standing in the center of the room, chanting. Around him the papers he had been carrying were floating on the air, shinning red. Every time a demon came close, a red lightning bolt shot out of a paper, charring the creature.

"And they all will die!!" the second to last survivor that was still with JC and Chris screamed as he jumped to harm the old woman. JC didn't seem to think twice before jumping to get her out of the way. Chris looked around and grabbed a spear from one of the armors that were around the hall for show. It might not be a good weapon, but Chris was not going to go down without a fight.

The last survivor that still didn't show signs of possession was quietly weeping in the corner. Chris knew right then that they couldn't count on him for anything.

"Yes, we've heard that already!" Chris yelled, branding his weapon to call the attention of the newest demon. "Get a new script!"

"I'll...!" the demon started screaming, and Chris shut him up by jamming the spear through its eye. It felt like a dry thud on his arms, and he tried to ignore the fact that he had just killed a living being.

"Swallow my soul. I know, I know."

"That was very brave, young Christopher," the old woman said as she was helped to her feet by JC. "Foolish but brave."

"How do you know his name?" JC asked, surprised. Chris just pulled the spear out of the dead demon, eying the weeping guy in the corner.

"I know many things, young Joshua," the woman said, smiling. "My name is Agatha Harkness, and it seems that I'll be your teacher from now on because with your bravery you just made a lot of enemies."

"What do you mean?" Chris asked, fearfully.

"Candarian demons have long memories, and they hate to be thwarted," Agatha shrugged. Then, looking behind Chris, she lifted her hand. Chris turned around just in time to see a demon turn into a block of ice. "Just ask Mr. Williams. He's been fighting them for over ten years now."

* * *

"So, what do we do?" JC asked, looking at the Justin demon. "Why are not we killing him?"

"It's Justin," Chris muttered, lowering his head. "I don't think I can do it."

"I can, if you want," JC offered, cocking his gun, getting ready to shoot. "You know it's the only way."

"I know," Chris sighed. "But **I** should do it. They got to Justin because I love him."

"Great for you to admit it," the demon in the bed said, smirking. "He would've loved to know that before we got his soul for a dessert."

"Shut up," Chris shot the other side of the wall. As he did so, JC trained his gun on Lance. The blond still hadn't shown any sign of being a demon, but they had learned that it was better to be safe than sorry.

First lesson they had learned with their supernatural teachers.

"You're going to kill me?" Suddenly, the demon shifted again. Now he looked like the man Chris had met by accident at a small coffee shop two months ago and it broke Chris's heart.  
After their first meeting with Constantine, Chris had tried to go back to a normal life with his family, but he hadn't been able to forget that Father O'Callan had betrayed him and tried to sacrifice him to Candarian demons, or how Constantine, Mrs. Harkness, Mr. Sumeragi and Mr. Williams had saved him and JC. So he had called JC on the phone to talk, and one thing had led to another, and soon, they were dating in secret.  
It hadn't lasted. Both were very aware that they had only gotten together because they couldn't talk to anyone else about what had happened in the old mansion, and that they worked off better as friends than as boyfriends. That same night, as Chris returned home to come out to his mom and sisters, he had found the house on fire, and John Constantine standing in front of the smoking remains, carrying Chris's baby sister, the only survivor.

The demons had been looking for vengeance, and they had gotten it. On the other side of town, Subaru Sumeragi, the Japanese exorcist, was trying to save JC's family from a similar fate.

That experience had made Chris very wary of making new friends. If he had no loved ones, the demons couldn't hurt anyone else on account of him. But the young Justin had been so earnest, so funny, and so perfect for Chris that for one moment he had forgotten all about his decision to live alone, like his teachers had when they had figured out that hunting demons didn't help make a happy family life.

For two months, Chris had started to believe that he could have a happy ending after all. Of course the Candarian demons would use that against him.

"Justin..."

"I'm ok, now, Chris," the demon Justin thing said. He looked so convincing that Chris could feel his resolve wavering. "I... I think the demon left me... you don't have to kill me. I'm ok... You saved me."

"Don't listen to it, Chris," JC warned. "Remember what Ash said. They're always using those tricks..."

"I know," Chris said, but he still couldn't shoot.

* * *

Chris tightened his grip on the gun that Mr. Constantine had given him and looked at JC, who had a similar weapon in his hands.

They had been training with him and the others for two years now, but they still were very nervous whenever they were called for actual combat.

Mr. Sumeragi hadn't been in time to save JC's family, so both Chris and JC were officially orphaned. And while Constantine had placed Chris's little sister in an orphanage, the boys had preferred to stay with Ash Williams for training. Ash was a lousy dad, and an even worse role model, but he was a great demon hunting teacher. And he wasn't the only one in charge of teaching them the basics of survival. Despite living in England, John came to visit very often and, after a few protests, started teaching them the basics of magic. Mrs. Harkness also came to visit often, and she had also given them lessons on how to deal with the more diplomatic demons, while Subaru, who lived in Japan, would come to teach them the **dangers** of using too much magic. They weren't their only teachers, both Ash and Constantine had enough friends in the magic underworld that Chris and JC's education was guaranteed.

But killing demons was still something that needed practice and not just theory, and Chris hated the practice part.

Ash had been called by a Dr. Thirteen, a man that, despite being in their same line of work, didn't believe in demons or ghosts because there were rumors about a Candarian cult in Maine. Thirteen wasn't based in Maine, and thus wasn't able to figure out what was going on, but Ash was more free to move around and that was how Chris, JC and Ash ended up in a small town called Haven, surrounded by strange looking demons that were ugly as hell, but not of the Candarian variety.

"Just shoot them in the head," Ash said, prepping his shotgun. "Nothing survives without a head."

"Just shooting them won't help, my love! You must cut their heads," a woman with long black hair and a strange medieval dress called to him from behind a mirror. Chris had gotten used to seeing her from time to time in any mirror that crossed Ash's way. Her name was Sheila, and as hard as it was to believe, she came from the middle ages. She had fallen in love with Ash when he had fallen there through a Candarian portal that had teleported him to Camelot, and ended up fighting the Candarians for the first time as the Chosen One.

According to her, she had also been saved from the Candarian demon's possession by the mere strength of Ash's love, only to end up in the future, and **then** trapped behind a mirror due to another Candarian demon plot. It was hard to believe, but Chris had seen crazier things since hooking up with Ash so he figured it was possible.

One of the snarling demons tried to attack him so he followed Sheila's advice. Instead of shooting the demon, he grabbed the sword he kept on his back and cut off its head, marveling as the way its body turned into ash.

He wished he could just be like Agatha or John, who from time to time managed to talk a demon out of possessing a body, but he knew it was not that easy. Half the time, the demons could only be killed. The idea that love could be enough to undo a possession was just too good to be true.

"Chris, why are you hesitating?" JC asked, his finger on the trigger. Chris knew that his friend thought that they had probably taken too long.

"I..." Chris started, trying not to look at Justin now that he looked like Justin again and not like the demon that Chris knew was in his body. "I..."

"Please, Chris, don't do it!" The Justin demon begged again. There were no traces of demonic hate in his tone, just pain and fear. Chris felt his will start to weaver, even as he knew that he just had to end the problem now and not let the demons stay in this plane for much longer. "I'm all right now! I swear! I got better! And if you just untie me, we can..."

"Shut up!" Chris yelled, tightening his grip. That was it, no more hesitation. He had to kill the demon to set his boyfriend's soul free.  
But before he could do it, he was interrupted once again.

"Wait, Chris... I want to try something..." JC said, and before Chris could ask what he was thinking, he promptly shot Justin in the left shoulder, almost in the chest, an area where a bullet wouldn't hit any vital spot but would still hurt like hell and leave the injured in dire need of a hospital.

"What the fuck?" Justin (and this time it was Justin's voice, Chris was sure of it because it didn't sound faked or forced) asked, looking widely around and, for the first time since Chris had come into the room, tried to lift his arms only to find them tightly bound with ropes. "What happened?"

"You are possessed by a Candarian demon, Ju," Chris said, trying not to choke. He didn't lower the gun, didn't even blink. But he knew that he was on the verge of crying. "It's inside your body, and it's probably going to kill you."

"What?" Justin whispered, scared, another emotion that was really had to fake for the Candarian Demons. It still was his boyfriend, and the idea didn't help make Chris feel better. "Why me?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" JC interrupted briskly. Chris didn't complain. His friend had remembered that strong, sharp pain could make the demon's presence recede long enough to make it possible to contact the human trapped in his mind. At least they could figure out who had opened the Necronomicon this time, and Chris could say goodbye.

That had to count for something.

"I..." Justin gritted his teeth, and Chris knew he had to act. Without flinching, he jabbed his finger into Justin's chest wound and wriggled the finger around. That had to hurt, and hurt enough so the demon wouldn't become dominant again. "Fuck! That hurts!"

"Sorry, Ju," Chris said with tears in his eyes. "But we need to know what happened to you."

"Lance," Justin said, quickly, looking at Chris and not at the door. "He and Stacy came in, I don't know why... and then they tied me up. Stacy had a weird book in her arms... like burnt or something. She told me to read it..."

"He's lying!" Lance screamed, making JC jab him with the barrel of his gun. "He's a demon, you said it yourselves."

"Let him finish, Lance," JC said, hurt obvious in his voice. He didn't want to think that the man he had befriended for so long was like the priests that had kidnapped him so long ago. Someone capable of betraying a friend just for a stupid plan that would only help to kill everyone on the planet.

"They said I was bait," Justin whispered, before looking at Chris straight in the eye. "Kill me!"

"What?" It was now time for Chris to be shocked. "What are you talking about Ju?"

"Kill me! Don't let them use me to hurt you more!" Justin begged. Chris could see the tears forming in his eyes and his heart lurched. Killing Justin would be like killing himself, even if they had only dated for two months, but the young man had a point. It was the only way to end the nightmare.

"I'm sorry, Ju," Chris said, leaning down to kiss Justin on the lips. He still was human, and Justin was still his boyfriend. He just needed to say goodbye. "I should've never dragged you into this mess."

"I don't regret it," Justin answered, smiling despite the tears. "I don't regret a single minute I spent with you. Even if you can't cook."

Chris had to bite down a chuckle. Even as he was getting ready to die, Justin was trying to make him feel better. He closed his eyes and placed his barrel on Justin's forehead. He was going to do the job right, and then he was going to kill Lance and whoever else had to do with getting Justin exposed to the Necronomicon.

He wanted to kill himself.

"Bye, bye, Ju," Chris whispered and pulled the trigger.

Or tried to, because something stopped him just short of it. He suddenly remembered something Sheila told him once; that in her time there were words that could vanish Candarian demons from their hosts and lock them back in the Necronomicon, only that Ash could never remember them right. He had heard those words, knew them because they sounded funky. It was worth a shot.  
With his eyes still closed, he breathed in deeply. He could do it. He could save Justin’s life.

“Klatuu, Varada, Nicto,” Chris recited, hoping  
like mad that Sheila had told him the right pronunciation. He opened his eyes to see Justin's face contorted in silent pain, but for some reason, the young man wasn't screaming. It was as if he had no vocal cords to scream.

A bright red light poured out of Justin's mouth and eyes, blinding everyone in the room. When it was done, Justin was unconscious, lying down on his pillow.

"You ruined everything!" Lance screamed, furious. Gone was the nervous man that had greeted them just a few hours ago, and he didn't look at all like the amicable friend that JC had introduced to him months ago. He looked just like a madman, a frustrated madman. "You were supposed to either kill the kid or get killed! How the hell did you manage to overpower the Necronomicon?!"

"I don't know," Chris said, slowly, pointing his gun at him. JC hadn't shot yet, but Chris knew it was because his friend wanted answers. “And honestly, I don’t care. What I care about is to knowing who you are and why the hell you thought it was a good idea to get my boyfriend possessed.”

“You two have ruined years of work,” Lance said, his face smoking as if someone had lit a bonfire inside of him. A sure sign of demonic possession, and one far more subtle than the one done by Candarian Demons, easier to solve if one had the right tools. It meant that the Necronomicon was working in a team with someone else. “But I’m not going to let you ruin anymore.”

With lighting fast speed, Lance got two guns from his back. But before he could shoot, JC pulled out a glass vial from one of the many pockets of his trench coat and threw it at Lance’s face. As soon as the glass broke, the holy water did its job, burning the demon but leaving the human intact.

With a scream of outrage, the dark cloud condensed over Lance’s head, forming a huge dragon made of black smoke. Without hesitation, Chris pulled out his blessed crucifix and brandished like a sword. The dragon retreated in fear, and, hissing, disappeared on thin air.

“That just left us with no leads,” JC sighed with relief as he saw his friend slump down to the floor, unconscious but alive. “Still, I guess I feel honored. It’s the first time one of **my** friends gets targeted.”

“We knew there would be times like this,” Chris shrugged, looking down at his sleeping boyfriend. “I guess we should leave.”

“Oh, no,” JC shook his head, putting his gun back in the hostler. “No way. I just saw a freaking miracle, when you and Justin managed to get that demon out of him; I’m not letting you run away from him. We’re waiting until he wakes up.”

“So what do you suggest?” Chris frowned, but didn’t protest. He was too busy petting Justin’s short curly hair. “Train him?”

“After he wakes up, yeah,” JC smiled. “And what better way to start than tracking down AJ and Stacy? If they also forced Justin to read the Necronomicon and Lance was possessed, they might be too.”

Chris laughed. He still wasn’t convinced that dragging Justin into his world was a good idea, but it could be worse. Justin had always said he wanted to travel and now JC had pretty much implied that the young man was welcome in their camper. The three of them could travel together, find demons to kill and people to help.  
Smiling, he bent down to kiss Justin’s forehead as his boyfriend started to stir.  
The future looked a lot brighter now that he knew he wouldn’t be alone.

  
The End.


End file.
